Money, Mindset and Better Choices - With the Credit Union

How were you taught to handle money growing up? For a lot of us, the honest answer is we were not. This week the Credit Union joins us for a conversation on budgeting, saving, and borrowing smarter. 

At The Proverbs 31 Show, we believe wisdom begins with being equipped. That's why this conversation felt like such a natural fit.

If you've ever wondered how to make wiser financial decisions or what support is available to you, this conversation is for you.

Visit creditunion.ky to learn more

Host: Leanni Tibbetts
Produced by: Cayman Style TV
Episode Sponsor: CICSA Co-op Credit Union Ltd.

Subscribe to The Proverbs 31 Show 💜

Subscribe to The Proverbs 31 Show 💜

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Today's episode is brought to you by the credit union, and they're celebrating 50 years this year, which means that they have been in business for a long time. So if you don't have an account, chances are your mama, your daddy, granny, honest, somebody has one, which means that you can become a member. Okay, so sign up for the credit union today to access the plethora of benefits that they have. So here on the Proverbs 31 show, our mission really is to help you, right? And one of the things that Proverbs 31 highlights is that she purchases fields and plants vineyards. Now, what does that mean for us? We want to give you the tools for you to succeed. So today we have with us the credit union who will highlight some of their tools and resources to help you become financially literate and set both yourself and your family up for success. Welcome back to the Proverbs 31 show. Today we are joined by a very special guest. We have Nordania from the Credit Union. So if you could just tell me a little bit about you and the credit union, especially the purpose of the credit union.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Yeah. Yes, happy to. Thank you for having me. Um, so I'm Nordania, as you know. Um, the credit union is K-Man's actually only locally owned financial institution. Um, and we aim to serve our community by providing financial resources, financial literacy tools, um, and you know, just being a partner in your financial journey.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Yeah, um, so I do know that the credit union is is a unique financial institution. Um, so one thing in particular that I did kind of want to know is who who can become a member. Because like previously people believed it was it was only civil service. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Yes. So I mean, and also it's in our name, Civil Service Um Association. Um, however, we have evolved since then. This year we're actually celebrating our 50th anniversary. We've been around since 1976, and even though it started as a financial institution for civil servants exclusively, it's now expanded to include family of civil servants, employees of um like statutory uh authorities like Water Authority, CUC, people who work in healthcare and education, whether that be private schools or public schools, private or public um health clinics, um, it's really opened up. And then if you yourself work, you know, in any of those sectors and you have a credit union account, then your immediate family can also get membership through you. So if your mother, father, sister, brother, spouse, grandparent, aunt, uncle essentially work, um, work in any of those sectors have or have an account already at the credit union, then you can get membership through them.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

And and just out of curiosity, how did the credit union start?

SPEAKER_00 3:05

We've been around for 50 years now. Yeah. And in 1976, our founding members came together and you know, they decided amongst themselves that it was hard for civil servants to get funding or loans from um existing banks. So they came together and pooled their money. Um, just you know, five dollars each with $35, the credit union was born.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

What?

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Um, and that's really how it began.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

What and that's so interesting too because, like, as well, not not so young anymore, but you know, like when I was trying to find a loan, one of the first people to get bought to me was the credit union, and that's who I have my loan through as well. So I know like there's a plethora of services available, yeah, and not not a lot of people are aware of how vast the services are, especially it's really designed to help the members. So if you could like highlight some of the services as well, yeah, no, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Um, you're definitely right. We're not your typical bank, we're a cooperative, so we really are about members helping members. So we're here to serve our community. Um, so in terms of services, we do offer things like you know, loans for cars and for homes, like other financial institutions do. Uh, what a lot of people don't know in terms of our loan offerings, um, or at least it was news to me um, you know, a few years ago, was that you can get a loan not just for a new car, but also for a used car. So I just want to put that out there for, you know, any young drivers or, you know, just any savvy drivers in this economy. You don't have to uh apply for a vehicle loan of, you know, $70,000. You can, you know, buy that car from EK Trade for a few thousand, um, and we can help you do that. We also provide things like um financial tools and resources to our members and the wider community, such as um free financial literacy tools and video clips to help people of all ages, you know, um become more financially literate in anything from saving and budgeting to investing. Um, so definitely recommend checking that out on the education portal, uh, the education section of our website. And we also offer like financial literacy workshops throughout the year, not just for our members, but also for students through our summer program or summer camp that happens every July. We work for quite closely with um the prison, prison services, and we have sessions where you know we upskill incarcerated persons to get them ready for release so that they're better able to manage their finances. Um it the the list really goes on and on, to be honest. But those are some of the things that I think we're really proud of.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Yeah, no, that's beautiful, and I'm glad that you brought up. Um, it's really good to know that listen, it can be a used car as well. That's fine. Um, and the the learning tab on your website was actually extremely, extremely helpful. So you know that if you don't know how budget or nothing like that, like go take a look at that tab on the credit union website for sure. So those are some I mean, I didn't realize you all did the um the incarcerated um yeah, it's something.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Um I'm I believe it's on maybe a quarterly basis. I know we've already done a session for this year. Um, but yeah, it's something that we're trying to to do because we really focus on sharing real life financial skills. We're not just trying to send people out there with, you know, a budget a printout of a budgeting worksheet. You know, we're really trying to give you useful tools um that you can apply in your real life.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Yeah, like for me, I have a loan, but one of the unique features of the loan is it actually equips me to save. So I don't know if you could explain that a little bit because I'm pretty sure I'm a butchery if I try.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

No problem. So, yes, um, that's something that is also unique to us at the credit union is the shares account. Um, so whenever you take out, when you have an account with the credit union, uh, as an adult, an adult account, you have a savings account and a shares account. Your shares account is the only one that uh qualifies you for dividends. So fun fact, um, we encourage you to keep you know majority of your money in your shares so it can grow and you get dividends at the end of the year. Explain what dividends are. So dividends, thank you. Um dividends is the interest that um the credit union, you know, generates. And since we are a cooperative and we are for our members, we don't take that that profit and pocket it. Um that profit is essentially redistributed amongst our membership. And how it works is every year uh the percentage is determined um at our AGM, um, which is our annual general meeting. It's held um every November. And that percentage is so essentially if you have a thousand dollars in your shares and the dividends for the year is two percent, you get two percent on your one thousand dollars. Okay. Um, so yeah, that's why we encourage you to keep your money there. Of course, you keep your money in your savings as you wish, um, but then you don't that doesn't count toward dividends. Um, but in addition, but in terms of what you were talking about, when you have a loan with us, we open a shares to account, so a secondary shares account. And what we do is in addition to your loan payment every month, there's also a mandatory minute payment that we take as well, deduction, and that goes directly into your shares to account. And you can't touch that money, but that money is yours. Uh as in, once you've finished paying off your mortgage, you get that money back. So we're we're really actively encouraging you to save. Um, and it's good, you know, if you have long-term goals and you know, you are probably someone who's tempted to touch funds, so you get that money back at the end of the day, or if you need some support paying off your loan, that money can go toward that too.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Yeah. And aside from that, too, like the interest rates are ridiculously low.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Very competitive, very competitive. We try to be. Um, right now we actually have an offer for mortgages, um, both for first-time buyers and for um those who come home, as in come home to the credit union. Maybe you have a mortgage elsewhere and you're looking to um get a better deal. Uh, we have a current interest rate of 5.75%. Okay. Yeah. That we can lock you in for a few years. So, regardless of you know how things change next year, the year after, you can guarantee that.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Yeah, see competitive interest rate, and you get a whole separate shares account on top of the shares account. So it's like it's beautiful, like the intention and the heart behind listen, we're here to serve you, to really help you save, which I I don't often find that. So you've benefited from being a member yourself.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Oh, yeah, definitely. I've been a member of the credit union long before I started working there. Um, I've been a member since I believe maybe 2012, um, when I was getting ready to go off to university in 2013. Uh, my mom opened an account for me, um, which was handy because even though I was off island then for a few years immediately after, uh, when I was a government scholarship recipient, thank you, came in government, bit you off every time. Um, yeah, so my mom would get the funds for me from the government and put it in my credit union account so it's protected and so I wasn't, you know, act uh, you know, I wouldn't lose my bank card abroad and then the funds would be, you know, you know, easily accessible. So yeah, definitely I was a member from well before I started working there. Uh, I also received my mortgage through the credit union, which I'm super thankful for. Uh, bought my first home last year. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

How beneficial would you say that was the fact that your mom set you up for an account?

SPEAKER_00 11:27

No, that was super helpful. That's something I'm really thankful to her about. Uh, my mom actually worked in the financial institution for most of my life. Um, she worked at another bank. Um, so thankfully, she was very financially literate and savvy. And I think opening an account for me taught me how to save from an early age. Um, it taught me the importance of, you know, wants versus needs, you know, based on the access I would have to my money. Um, and it just set me up, you know, for for my future. And it's something that I would encourage parents, grandparents, you know, um, caregivers, like guardians of yeah, caregivers, aunties, open open a bank account, uh a credit union account for the little ones in your life. Uh, there's no minimum age requirement to have an account, to have a youth savers account, which is what we call it prior to the age of 18. But honestly, if you have a birth certificate, you can open, you can have an account open in your name at the credit union. It's easier when you do it for your child because the only paperwork you need at that point is the birth certificate, you know, versus when they're older, now they have to obtain paperwork to prove their relation to you and to this and to that. So you're just setting them up for an easier start. Yeah, that's good. Well, if you do decide to become a member after you're 18, that is completely fine as well. As I mentioned, we've been streamlining the process, making it easier. You can fill out the form online, um, and more people than ever are eligible for membership now.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Yeah. So we have the learning tab as well. So can you like explain like what some of the videos are on that learning tab?

SPEAKER_00 13:07

We actually have the videos categorized for you. So we'll have like a video library dedicated to budgeting, investing, dedicated to savings. They're animated clips, they're you know, a few minutes long, maybe one to five minutes max. Kid friendly as well. Yeah, they're kid friendly, adult friendly. Um, they use simple terminology, and as I mentioned, it is animated to you know appeal to kids and keep their attention. However, the topics are quite expansive. So don't let the animations deter you. If you are, you know, an adult, they're still helpful. And another thing that our members aren't aware of is that you can skip the line a lot of the time to access your services that you need via our website, creditunion.ky. We have a tab on the homepage called CU Convenience where you can set up standing orders, you can request an account statement letter. And one of the most useful features of uh CU Convenience is that you can actually transfer funds directly from your uh commercial bank to the credit union like and to your account. I think a lot of people don't realize that and they come, you know, they line up uh thinking they need to make a physical deposit, but you can skip the lines. We uh have instructions for you for depending on which bank you're with, um, telling you how to specifically transfer the funds from your bank to your credit union account.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Okay. So one thing that we we've spoken a lot about the um the saving elements of credit union, but I just want to touch a little bit on on the human nature component of things, you know. So during COVID, for instance, a lot of people got access to their pensions. Now, what they did with that pensions was varied, right? You know, some might have slipped that into their shares, racing at dividends, some might have invested it in the stock market. But I am well aware of a lot of people who took that pension and bought a new car and you know, like or or fixed up their car, or you know, just uh went on well, they couldn't go on a trip, but like they they just bought like a lot of things, you know, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Yeah, that's true, that's true. A lot of it is is your mindset is your mindset and prioritizing um expenses, which is why education is so important, educating people of all levels about you know, um, the importance of budgeting, what the differences between needs and wants are, because sometimes we don't have these conversations at home, sometimes we don't have these conversations early enough or in-depth enough uh at schools. Um, we are actually in the process of rolling out a program for year six students across all gov uh public primary schools. Um, and this program is, as I said, the importance of budgeting, understanding and identifying needs versus wants, how to save for long-term versus short-term goals, um, things that will genuinely help them as they grow and become, you know, members, like contributing members of society. We did the pilot um workshop last year with uh East End Primary, and we'll be rolling it out in the next couple of months. So keep an eye out for that. But in terms of, you know, making purchases, like you said, a car or something else that's pricey that you maybe really want, but don't necessarily need, um, something that we offer as well are within share loans, which essentially means a member is borrowing money within their means or you know, from themselves. Um, so it's a more controlled way of borrowing. So you don't have to worry about, you know, being in in um biting off more than you can chew, so to speak. So within share loans are uh another option that I would recommend more people looking into rather than just taking out a personal loan or going further in debt with uh an additional loan. Also, we offer um debt consolidation. So if you do have multiple debts uh with us, say, you know, your car loan, your home, your mortgage, you can consolidate that debt. Um and then the interest rate is usually more beneficial to the member when that's when you do that, because um, you know, obviously a car loan versus a mortgage, you have different interest rates, but when you consolidate the debt, they're adhering to one rate. Um, so those are two things that I think you know members should utilize more because you can definitely make your money work for you. Sometimes, like, yes, you need to prioritize your your needs over wants, but sometimes the want is very strong. So it's about making a smarter decision with your finances, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

That makes sense because you know, like um, unfortunately, not a lot of people live within their means, and by the time they realize it, it's a little bit too late. So it's very good to to know that you know, through the credit union you have that benefit of the uh is it the within shares loan? Is that what it's called? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You have the within shares loan, or you can call consolidate your loan, um, which people don't even know that's an option. They're just kind of like drowning in debt, they don't know what to do.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Yeah, they kind of throw their hands up.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

Exactly, yeah. And all of this um is further explained on our website as well. Um, when you go to the loans section of our website, which is probably the most heavily used, um, there's more to it than just um mortgages and car loans. There's land loans, line of credit, within share loans. Um, so definitely check it out. Personal loans as well, and we explain the differences between each, what you can qualify for. Like there's a there's a calculator for each, um, so you can see what you qualify for. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

Okay, that's great. And before we wrap up, if there was like any last minute thoughts or maybe even any advice um for people who are trying to, you know, like I said, fix their finances or maintain their their finances right now.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Yeah. Um, I would recommend to use the tools around you. A lot of the time we think, you know, K-Ma doesn't have a lot of resources. And in some areas, that's true. There's there's a lot of room for improvement, but there are resources out there. There are tools out there, like some of them that I shared today available on our website, um, creditunion.ky. Um, make use of them and ask questions. You know, a lot of people aren't aware of our resources. What about other resources that are out there too? You know, um, ask questions to us. Um, you know, come in, uh ask if you know, ask to speak with one of us uh or send us an email. We are here to to support our members. So yeah, definitely utilize the tools that are out there and also everything on our website is accessible for it's not just accessible for our members, you know, those the education portals, the um cost calculators, that's open to the community at large. So yeah, check it out. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Now go check out the creditunion.ky dot k y. So one of the goals of the credit union really is to serve their members, which aligns so closely to what our heart is, as the Proverbs 31 show. Our heart is to serve you. Seeing as though the goals align so closely, we want to make sure that you're aware of all of the benefits. Check out the creditunion.ky to explore the vast amount of services that they have to offer.